Hi guys,
Haven't really been involved on the forum here but have used it extensively for research which has been great. Im 32, have a wife and 2 kids, am a spray painter by trade, have had the opportunity to work on many older cars and restorations but I have a definite love for vehicles of the 70's.
I couldn't quite afford the straight up cost of a genuine sandman with a mortgage and family etc so decided to piece one together. This car is really far from a replica, I have built it to be period specific to the 70's, not correct. I wanted people to look at it and believe its a factory vehicle at first glance but not being genuine have changed trim and bits and pieces and wanted it to have that 70s muscle car flavour.
I started with a $6000 ute from Tamworth owned by a couple named Jay and Steve about 3 and a half years ago. Running a 253, manual and a 2.78 rear. yellow with brown interior.
I could post countless photos but while this was a fairly clean example of a HZ she was full of minor dents, had to do rust under the screens, under the r/h plenum, and in the Lh sill. The rust that was there wasn't bad. probably the worst feature of the car was the extremely battered tray and rear cab panel.
The car was bare metaled and repaired. I ended up driving her in primer for about a year. I sourced a twin headlight front off of a Hj statesman, trim pieces and everything else.
I had started the project with a $500 ute off of a mate that just about fell apart from rust when sandblasted but it did give me a donor 308. I rebuilt this at home as it had had a very poor previous rebuild with a fairly standard bottom end with 40thou acl flat tops, crane 276 cam and lifters, rollmaster timing chain, yella terra bolt on adjustable rockers, edelbrock performer and rebuilt Qjet and pre pollution red heads with a bowl job and 1.94 intake valve.
I purchased and had a 700r4 rebuilt and added a b&m 2500 stall and backed it up with a salisbury running a 3.08 LSD. Hurricane headers with twin 2.5" pipes. Shes not overly loud but has a nice note.
The dash and center console I repaired and painted, did new carpet and made a rear cab panel trim etc, seats door cards and hood lining were trimmed by Shane King. As you can see, pleats in door cards and setas are not factory but are period features and had to be black for the muscle car feel. Making use of a B&M megashifter that I designed a plate to fit the factory console and was machined for me by good friend Peter King. GTS gauges and radio are all yellow needle suit HZ.
Over christmas I got 4 days to prep and paint her finally. The colour is a Honda civic colour of all things but is a throwback to antelope. Ive kept it to earthy tones for that 70s appeal. the black outs should be quite correct by the source material I had anyway. I decided to paint the Sandman stripes, the colour is my variation on the DY1 stripes, is a solid orange with pearl dark gold and brown. the sandman text I stenciled initially and then masked the pin stripes but the stripes down the side are entirely masked by hand... mostly not perfect to the original but good enough for driving past her.
Oh yeah, fresh chrome fiitted throughout. And weld draglites with white lettered BFG radial T/As.
I wanted something else for her, I like the early issues of street machine and van wheels and wanted something in the vein of the l88 corvette scoops that were popular, without being so retro. Reverse cowls were out. I decided on fitting the hump and louvers from a 68 ss camaro.
I still have tinkering and finishing and buffing and making things sit better etc but over all Im quite happy. I hope some of the people here can enjoy her as well!
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks